Tuesday January 12, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck 10 miles off of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Following the initial shock, 12 aftershocks reaching over 5.0 continued to rock the beleaguered capital. The level of destruction is near total, encompassing people's homes, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Port-au-Prince and even the Presidential Palace. As you read this the death toll rises and others continue to be trapped.

The idea behind this tournament is to raise awareness of the disaster that has befallen Haiti, serve as a link to news and pictures and provide links and ways for people to donate. Each player will receive THREE PMs throughout the course of the tournament which will provide links to stories and pictures and encourage donations through recognized charities (I will NOT be asking for money and donations are NOT required, only strongly encouraged).

If you do choose to donate, please (if you like) let me know via PM and you will receive special recognition in this thread and the newsletters.

***Cell phone users can text "HAITI" to "90999"and a donation of $10, charged to the phone bill, will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts.

***People can also text "YELE" to "501501" on their cell phones, and $5 billed to the user will be donated to Yele Haiti, the charitable foundation established by musician Wyclef Jean to help his native country.

While I haven't been able to confirm this myself, but many coinstar locations are accepting your loose change to be donated towards the American Red Cross. UPDATE: I took my coins into the coinstar machine nearby and indeed, you can donate to charity through the machine. UNICEF has a Haiti Specific charity to donate to, but a number of other charities, including the American red Cross , are available to donate to.

Help to advertise this tournament and awareness (copy the following and remove stars, put in profile signature):

I don't think I'm using site features to raise money; that would be something like charging entrance fees which is a no-go. But, I'm making a request for people to donate to an established charity while running a tournament to raise awareness, ect. I guess if you consider tournaments and forums site features, which I guess they are, it's breaking the rules. But I understood and was told site features is more like charging fee to enter a tournament, which as I understand it, I am not doing.